Brag About Reading

School:: Lavern Gaynor Elementary
Subject:: Language Arts
Teacher:: Tiffany Weeks
Students Impacted:: 200
Grade:: K-5
Date:: September 11, 2020

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Joe and Melanie Paolantonio - $100.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 300

My goal was to increase motivation by rewarding students for challenging themselves to read appropriate leveled books independently. The original plan was to give students brag tags, but after hearing suggestions from the students we changed the plan.

We purchased silicone bracelets instead. These bracelets were embossed with the message "Knowledge is Power" and "#ReaderLeader". There were a variety of colors and the students enjoyed searching through the treasure box to find a perfect color.

They were an instant hit! Students had an opportunity to earn up to 6 this year.

After introducing the bracelets, students started making a concentrated effort to earn them. The biggest increase of participation was in my 2nd and 5th grade students. This is wonderful because 2nd grade students sometimes lack confidence and my 5th grade students often lack motivation.

In Kinder and 1st students were able to earn a bracelet if they met their individual reading goals.

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Super Kinder Readers

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Original Grant Overview

Goal

To increase motivation by rewarding students for challenging themselves to read appropriate leveled books independently. The students will be given custom "brag tags" when they meet their reading goals. These brag tags will be collected on key rings that they can attach to their backpacks!

What will be done with my students

Students will participate in two separate reading incentive programs.
One focuses on the Sunshine State Young Reader Award program which features 15 books nominated by Florida teachers. All students who read 3 or more books will get to vote for their favorite in the spring using real voting booths provided by the Supervisor of Elections! Students will also receive a custom brag tag when they meet different reading goals. They will have an opportunity to earn two different tags in the Sunshine State program.
We also have a Rising Readers incentive program. This program encourages student to read books at an appropriate level (determined by their teacher). They then will take a short comprehension quiz on each book using the Reading Counts computer program. They earn points for each quiz they pass. Students will have an opportunity to earn three different brag tags for meeting their reading goals in this program.

Benefits to my students

Students are encouraged to read every night. The students are successful when they are reading appropriate level books. Their success becomes an intrinsic motivator, in addition to the incentive of the program rewards, which makes them want to read more.

Daily reading has been proven to have many benefits.
Some of these benefits are:
• Vocabulary Expansion
• Mental Stimulation
• Memory Improvement
• Increased Subject Knowledge
• Stronger Analytical Thinking
• Improved Focus and Concentration
• Better Writing Skills

Budget Narrative

This school year I am assigned to two different school libraries, Lavern Gaynor Elementary and Herbert Cambridge Elementary. I am requesting tags for both sites.
Key rings will be purchased to hold the brag tags for students.
Brag tags were designed by the media specialist specifically for our students and will be purchased from schoollife.com

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Key rings	$10.00
2	Variety of custom brag tags	$100.00
	Total:	$100.00

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